How to Set Up Enhanced Conversions in Google Ads

This is the account setup for enhanced conversions. You turn on one switch, accept the customer data terms, and then your uploads can include a hashed email or phone next to the click ID. You do not add a second product after GCLID capture fails.

Setup Overview

Step	Time	What It Does
1. Enable in Google Ads	2 min	Turns on the Enhanced Conversions feature
2. Accept Customer Data Terms	1 min	Required legal agreement
3. Create the import action	2 min	Name the offline event Google should accept
4. Update conversion action	2 min	Enable ECL on specific actions
5. Test upload with hashed PII	15 min	Verify matching works

Total: ~20 minutes for a complete setup.

Step 1: Enable Enhanced Conversions

1. Sign in to Google Ads
2. Navigate to Goals → Conversions → Settings
3. Find Enhanced conversions section
4. Click the toggle to Turn on

Step 2: Accept Customer Data Terms

When you enable Enhanced Conversions for the first time:

1. A prompt appears to review Google’s Customer Data Terms
2. Review the terms (covers how Google processes the hashed data you send)
3. Check the acknowledgment box
4. Click Agree and continue

This is a one-time acceptance per Google Ads account.

Step 3: Create the import action

There is nothing else to choose here. The same switch covers a website tag, a file you upload by hand, and a script that sends the job through the Data Manager API.

Step 4: Update your conversion action

Your Import conversion action needs to be configured for ECL:

For New Actions

1. Goals → Conversions → + New conversion action → Import
2. Select CRM, files, or other data sources, then track conversions from clicks. Hashed email and phone are added on the upload, including when a click ID is also present.
3. Configure the action settings (name, value, count, etc.)
4. This automatically enables ECL for this action

For Existing Actions

If you already have an Import conversion action:

1. Goals → Conversions → click your action
2. Click Edit settings
3. If you still see a per-action toggle named “enhanced conversions for leads,” turn that on too. Newer accounts only have the account switch from Step 1.
4. Click Save

Step 5: Test with Hashed PII

CSV Upload Test

Prepare a test CSV with hashed PII:

Google Click ID,Hashed Email,Hashed Phone Number,Conversion Name,Conversion Time,Conversion Value,Conversion Currency
EAIaIQobChMI...,a8b14f04b2be6c5f...,d4f5c3b1e72a9f8d...,Booked Job,2026-04-10 14:30:00-05:00,4500.00,USD

Leave the click ID blank only when you do not have one. The offset belongs on the conversion time.

API upload

If you upload from a script, send the job through the Data Manager API. After June 15, 2026, a developer token that was not already uploading gets rejected on the old Google Ads upload call. Uploading the CSV yourself under Goals → Conversions → Uploads does not use that call.

If TUOCA or another tool hashes for you, give it the raw email and phone. It should lowercase the email, format the phone as E.164, hash both, and keep the GCLID on the same job.

Verify Results

After a successful upload, imported conversions usually show in reports in about 3 hours. Processing is typically under 12 hours, and a row keyed by a GBRAID or WBRAID can take up to 72 hours. Then:

1. Go to Goals → Conversions → your action → Diagnostics
2. Look for the Enhanced conversions diagnostic card
3. Check:
   • Match rate — Percentage of uploads that matched
   • Data quality — Quality of the PII data received
   • Issues — Any problems detected

What the diagnostics card is telling you

Google does not publish a match rate for an email, a phone, or a GCLID. Send the hashed email, the hashed phone, and the GCLID when you stored it, then read the card. If you hash Jane@Example.com before you lowercase and trim it, it will not match jane@example.com. See How to Hash PII for Enhanced Conversions when the card names a formatting problem.

In 99 conversion-lift studies from April 2024 through April 2025, Google found an average 8% incremental ROAS on Search for advertisers who bid to conversion value and use enhanced conversions. That is a change in reported return, not a match rate.

Common Setup Issues

Issue	Symptom	Fix
Customer Data Terms not accepted	ECL toggle grayed out	Accept terms in Settings
Wrong conversion action type	PII fields not accepted	Must be “Import” type
ECL not enabled on action	Hashed PII ignored	Enable in action settings
Using MD5 instead of SHA-256	Zero matches	Switch to SHA-256
PII not normalized	Low match rates	Normalize before hashing

How TUOCA Simplifies ECL Setup

With TUOCA, the ECL workflow is:

1. Enable ECL in Google Ads (Steps 1-4 above — one-time setup)
2. Connect your data source in TUOCA
3. Map PII fields — Select which source fields contain email, phone, name
4. TUOCA handles the rest:
   • Normalization (lowercase, trim, E.164, Gmail dots)
   • SHA-256 hashing
   • Sending both GCLID and hashed PII for dual-path matching
   • Error handling for invalid identifiers
   • Match rate monitoring in Activity Logs

Next Steps

1. ✅ Enable Enhanced Conversions in Google Ads settings
2. ✅ Accept Customer Data Terms
3. ✅ Configure ECL on your Import conversion action
4. ✅ Send a test upload with hashed PII
5. ✅ Check Diagnostics for match rate
6. ✅ Set up TUOCA for automated ECL uploads